• Ahhh (or is that Arrrgh!?) the sound of fighting children in the morning #
• @simonwheatley If you’re going to The BigChill drop in if you have any spare time #
• Thought of a name for my band: The Complications #
• And arrive in Moreton-in-Marsh for my meeting. Very Cotswold #
• Simon plugs Crocs. They follow. http://twitter.com/simonwheatley/statuses/873742799. Maybe they will send him some …I like Aston Martins #
• Down at the pub. Fpur pints worth of wisdom. Photoshit.com new concept in photo spoofism #

• @FiBendall you would have thought that Dell would have realised that after all the product diumping they have done in recent years #
• More internal web work on CT II and Realitus this morning. Long blog post …lunch …and on to paid work this afternoon - hurrah. #
• WordPress Theme Design from [PACKT] is a great book. I am learning why things work that I had previously put down to the presence of fairies #
• G’night. Some wisdom from WH Auden to end the day: “We are here on earth to do good for others. What the others are here for, I don’t know” #

Petrol prices have soared recently, threatening the way of of life in the UK. At the same time BP declare $16.2 Billion profits of which $8.7 Billion are from increased oil prices (BBC News). These are obscene profits and so we all blame them. But should we?

The Parable of The Drug Pusher

A man is introduced to heroin. After a while he cannot function without it. The drug pusher sold him the first score cheap, then charged more and more as time went on. The addict, had to find a way to pay for the heroin, because he was hooked and could not get through life without the drug.

One day the police arrested the drug dealer. During his court case, the drug dealer said that he had hiked the price to discourage the addict, being concerned about his health and welfare. This carried no sway with the jury, who found him guilty. In summing up, the judge tore into this defence for trying pass greed off as concern.

The dealer was sent down and the addict was gradually weened off the heroin through methadone prescriptions, ultimately adopting a life-style which was not drug fueled.

We are all entirely dependent upon petrol and individually we are as hooked to the stuff as a heroin addict is to smack. I cannot run my business without a car, my wife has a job and takes most of the responsibility for ferrying the children around; this is not possible without a car. We live in the countryside. We cannot survive without a car. There are no village shops any more. Buses come infrequently and at bizarre times. We have to go to out-of-town supermarkets to get everything from food to football boots as do all of us, no matter where we live. The overwhelming majority of people, whether urban or rural folk, have no choice. We have to buy petrol no matter how much it costs.

Dividing the Oil Spoils

Petrol actually retails at 57.65p per litre. The government add 120% to that (69.35p) in taxes so that we get to pay 127p per litre at the pump. (petrolprices.com  |  Tax tables). 

It breaks down to:

Fuel Cost: 127p
VAT: 19p
Duty: 50.35p

Government gets: 69.35p (55.6%)
Actual fuel cost: 57.65p (44.4%)

Last week it cost me £70 to fill my car up. £38.92 went to the government. £31.08 went to BP. Every time it goes up, so does the VAT component of that. Incidentally, the fuel duty will rise by a further 2p per litre once all the governments’ MPs stop worrying about losing their seats at the next election.

It’s All About ‘Green’ Backs

The government know we are hooked on petrol. They do not make the prices rise, but they do rake it in when it happens. They tell us that the massive fuel duty (amongst the highest in the world) is something to do with encouraging greener living. But somewhat like the heroin addict, we have no choice. We have to buy this energy narcotic, no matter how much it costs. The government are being disingenuous to suggest that fuel duty is all about concern for our environmental welfare.

I don’t believe it anyway. If the government want to save the environment, they should turn on their collective TV and look at the Olympic stadium pictures from Beijing. They should then apply an environmental tax on Chinese goods. The pollution produced in the manufacture of Chinese goods renders car fuel pollution in the UK a meaningless.

Happily in the parable of the drug pusher, the addict was provided with a viable route out of addiction and had an alternative lifestyle option. Unhappily we have no such escape. The latest injection of genius from the government proposes we should replace our cars for brand new, more fuel efficient ones. If we don’t it could mean facing an annual bill of £800 for car tax.

And what’s in it for us? More expense to buy a new car. Then we have to absorb the instant devaluation on our old cars which will have been rendered gas-guzzlers and therefore unsalable. All to achieve what will be a 15% cut in fuel use. If it costs you £15000 to buy a new car and you do 12,000 miles per year, you would have to drive it for between 8-10 years before you had made up the cost in fuel savings.

Does anyone win? Well yes the government do. They get more tax and duty from the sale of new cars and old ones. They will get more car tax money from those who cannot afford to make this change and they still rake it it in from fuel duty. In the meantime the environment will remain in a parlous state because everything still runs on petrol and no one is doing anything about China!  

Driving Profits

Certainly BP make huge profits. but they do not make much profit from petrol sold through forecourts. Their profits are largely derived from exploration, drilling and refining. And is $16 Billion too much? You would expect their profits to be straospheric, they are after all a global company. And let’s be realistic, their objective is to make good profits.

Talking of realistic, the government also taxes those profits, making further billions for the country from us (indirectly) through them. If some of BP’s profits need to be off-set against increased fuel prices, then look to the government. They have not only taken tax from BP and fuel duty and VAT from us but they actually exist to do these things on our behalf.

Slick Behaviour

We should not be complaining at BP for being successful. We should be buying shares in them. We should, however, be holding the government to account for profiteering at the expense, and misery of the very people whose best interests they are elected to represent. It’s a slick trick, because they get away with it. The environment is a holy cow, if you disagree, you get metaphorically tarred and feathered for being ungreen. In truth we ought to pour oily scorn on the government for using a petrol addiction to generate revenue while waving an environmental flag for effect.

• At the studio. Kirsty back after 4 days of vomiting. Loads to do: Need to redesign Creative Thing Website and get Realitus off the ground #
• Just listening to Steve Cram talking about the sad death of is brother and his http://cramalert.co.uk/ charity. Looks like a good idea #
• Watching the news in the studio. Couple on honeymoon in Antigua are mugged and shot. She is dead and he is in hospital. Sad dreadful tragedy #
• @FiBendall Fif: Good luck with your Chinese mission. Hope you get that firewall ripped down #
• My old company BP have made record profits. Perhaps the unexpected profits that oil prices create for BP ought to be given to the customers #
• In the studio. The heavens have opened and it is bucketing down, outside. Hope this doesn’t hold up flood repairs on the cottage. #
• Another day gone - lot of good work done on my redesigned websites and getting my blog auto feeding twitter and vice versa. #
• Have identified a new business concept with a client need to discuss with project managers in big cities - NDA being prepared #

I spent a very fruitful time, professionally, at WordCamp UK last weekend. Amongst other things I learnt that my marketing company, Creative Thing was probably one of the first to launch a commercial non blog deployment of WordPress. (ACIDnews). We also learnt that there is currently a demand for these skills and the market area is growing.

In response. We felt we needed a more dedicated WordPress proposition. As such we have split our cbusiness in two. Creative Thing will focus on Marketing, graphic design and print, while the new name, Realitus will focus on web design and WordPress. We feel that while we are able to design and deploy WordPress, our expertise in marketing and our contacts within the WordPress community makes it better for us to operate in the consultancy hole, defining  objectives, scoping requirements, designing solutions and either building or sourcing the appropriate supplier to do so.

This means we need to sort out the two brands websites to better focus and define the message. The Realitus website has been constructed quite quickly over  a few days (the power of WordPress). We are really happy with it as far as it goes (needs more content). The new Creative Thing website is close to being finished . Again no content, but structurally it is looking good.

Take a look and let us know what you  think: ct.trialzone.co.uk

• …and after giving me and Carolyn a 6am start to the day the brood are now throwing toys and screaming. The summer hols are here! #
• Kirsty, my colleague, went home sick on Fri. Just txt’d to say she is still ill. That screws the day up. #
• @FiBendall Yep. On FaceBook at http://tinyurl.com/5oz3xo #
• 1 yr on from UK Floods. Just back from engineer meeting at flooded house. extension to be demolished and rebuilt. no return til 2009 #
• Just testing Alex Kings WordPress Twitter Tools http://tinyurl.com/yqzkh6 #
• Posting direct from my blog to Twitter… #
• …and direct from twitter. Hurrah and huzzar. It works #
• Good progress on Phase 1 actions from WordCamp. Splitting company:. Creative Thing for Graphics and Realitus for WordPress consultancy #
• This pm went mountain biking over the Malvern Hills. Had to push the bike up much of it. Today’s Yatesism: must get fitter. #

I have been running my marketing and design company, Creative Thing for some years now and we have just decided to split the company in two - retaining Creative Thing for graphic design and traditional media marketing.

The new off-shoot is Realitus. It exists because among our successes was realising very early on that WordPress could be so much more that a blogging tool. We thought if you just forget about blogging completely, and look at the way WordPress does things and what it both can do and potentially could do, you realise that it is not a blog - it is a great deal more.

In 2005/2006 we started to think around this and came up with a concept called Newsengine. We were able to deliver our first important WordPress website in the form of ACIDnews an online newsdesk and communications hub between the members, the organisation, html email communications and promotions. It was created for the Anti Copying In Design organisation (ACID is a membership, lobbying and commercial rights organisation operating in the UK and Eu. ACID has been in Desaign Week’s top 50 most influential organisations in Design for the lest five years).

Some years later we realise that this type of work requires a dedicated vehicle all of its own. And that is Realitus.

Realitus are UK web experts and

WordPress consultants.

Our big idea can be simply put: Good ideas don’t just happen, you have to make them happen. And certainly one of the best ideas for a decade is happening right under everyone’s noses in the shape of WordPress. Businesses large and small from Tamworth to Tasmania have been waking up to the potency and effectiveness of WordPress and bringing the Realitus WordPress Consultants in to make it happen for them.

We stand out because before we did what we do now, we did what you did. We managed and ran businesses, big plc businesses and little struggling businesses. So we know where you’re coming from. We’ve been down the same road.

We have nailed our colours to an open source approach to the web - these days that is almost exclusivelyWordPress. And if you haven’t heard what is going on with WordPress, you should really give us a call.

Let’s make some good ideas happen.

• living room in the flood refuge. mess of toys and dirty cups. weather is great fully intend to take the kids out and enjoy it. #
• leaving flood refuge. bicycles, sunshine and lollipops to follow. #
• Note to self: buy shaving gel and shampoo #
• M5 northbound jinc. 7. Lot of traffic both directios but moving fast. Going to visit parents in Stoke #
• Listening to ministry of sound chillout sessions 2 for the first time in ages. Really suits the mood and the fine weather. #
• And off the M5 http://twitpic.com/5l3m #
• testing tweat for 2 mins past midnight #

Found this on Wikipedia:

Scientists have long known the therapeutic benefits of writing about personal experiences. Blogs provide another convenient avenue for writing about personal experiences. Research shows that it improves memory and sleep, boosts immune cell activity and reduces viral load in AIDS patients, and even speeds healing after surgery.

On the other hand it does your eyes in, deprives you of sleep, knackers your back and encourages you to graze on rubbish while you are doing it.

Following the most impressive WordCamp UK conference in Birmingham - a review will follow at some point - I am persuaded to start a blog. To date I have resisted this, being busy and not at all convinced that my ramblings will be of any interest to anyone. However, I am already convinced that WordPress is the new way of doing the web for me and my customers, I am persuaded that this is now absolutely necessary for me to explore the entire potential of the medium - so here is the blog. It is an exercise in learning through spouting off. And I can sound off on most things. (more…)